Oolong Tea Offer Protection from Alzheimer’s

The incidence of Alzheimer’s disease is growing, especially among younger people.

Close to 13 million people develop Alzheimer’s disease each year worldwide, with a cost reaching $100 billion in the U.S. alone.

Researchers recently found that both green tea and black tea inhibited the toxicity of an amyloid plaque protein called beta-amyloid. The protein, which is often found in high levels in the brains of those dying of Alzheimer’s, is very toxic to brains cells in the hippocampus, the area of the brain most affected by the disease.

The tests, on cultures of cells from the hippocampus, used concentrated extracts of both green and white tea showed that the teas protected the cells from this toxicity.

The most powerful protecting factors in the teas were gallic acid, epicatechin gallate, and epigallocatechin gallate. Scientists noted that green tea was much more powerful, containing almost five times more of these protective factors. (The problem with black tea is that it contains high levels of aluminum and fluoride.)

White tea and Oolong Tea, meanwhile, have an even higher concentration of these chemicals than green tea and has essentially no fluoride.

Additional studies have shown that both DHA and tea catechins protect the heart and blood vessels.

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Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, is a slow-to-progress and irreparable condition that results in increasing loss of cognitive function. It has been widely recognized among members of the medical establishment that Alzheimer's is brought on by harmful free radicals, as well as the body's failure to remove damaging beta-amyloid proteins that form brain plaques.

Previous research has shown that antioxidants in both green and oolong tea possess neuroprotective properties and are able to connect to beta-amyloid proteins. Using a high tech system that imitates the human digestive system, the research team, led by Dr. Ed Okello, expanded on this research, subjecting different concentrations of these toxic compounds to digested green tea molecules. Scientists found that green tea antioxidants bind to toxins like magnets, rendering these dementia-promoting free radicals harmless. Green tea and oolong tea effectively keeps toxins from destroying normal brain cells.

Footnote by Daniel Reid

Clinical studies on tea done so far have only focused on green tea and black tea.

The therapeutic benefits of semi-fermented oolong type teas, particulary the High Mountain Oolong Teas from Taiwan (available from this website) have even more potent healing properties than the green or white teas mentioned above.

Moreover, you cannot drink enough green tea on a daily basis to get a strong therapeutic benefit, without irritating your stomach, whereas High Mountain Oolong may be drunk all day long without ill effect. And it tastes incredible too!

The other key factor today in tea as medicine is the high level of poisonous pesticides and fumigants present in virtually all commercial teas, especially in Asia. That's why Oolong-Tea.Org offers only organically grown teas from small family plantations in Taiwan.